Our Physicians

Our Physicians

Resident Physicians

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Paul Bixenstine, MD

Paul Bixenstine grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Brown University where he majored in Economics before joining Teach For America and teaching middle school math in Oakland, CA. After teaching for two years he went to Johns Hopkins for medical school. There he did a year of research in general pediatrics exploring preconception counseling for mothers, particular regarding folic acid supplementation, and determinants of poorly controlled asthma among urban underserved youth. He decided to apply to Med-Peds so that he could pursue a career in primary care to attempt to improve the health and opportunity of underserved families by working with children and adults in a practice that is community-integrated, team-based, innovative and works to both promote prevention and create health. He was drawn to UCLA not only because of the excellent categorical training in both medicine and pediatrics but because of the fantastic Medicine-Pediatrics Comprehensive Care Clinic here that is one of the most innovative academic primary care practices in the country. Paul is thrilled to join a program that is committed to providing outstanding, state-of-the-art primary care that, to use a term one of its recent graduates, Rishi Manchanda, coined, moves "upstream."

Rebecca Virata, MD

Rebecca was born in Tennessee and spent the rest of her childhood spread throughout the United States from Kentucky to California to Washington. She spent summer vacations in the Philippines, hanging out with family, lazing on the beach, and eating copious amounts of food. At the University of Washington she majored in biochemistry and biology with over 9 months of research in marine biology. After spending 2 years doing research and traveling around the world, she moved to the east coast for medical school. At Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she found her love for primary care and continued her interest in intentional medicine. The summer between first and second year of medical school was spent in Manila working for the World Health Organization analyzing Hepatitis B vaccination rates in the Western Pacific Region.

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2016-2019 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2015-2016 Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 2011-2015 Undergraduate: University of Washington

Kaitlin Hardin, MD, MPH & TM

Kaitlyn grew up surrounded by pigs and sheep on a farm in Northern California. She went to UC Berkeley for college where she studied Public Health. After college she worked in an HIV clinic and then for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studying infections in hospitals and in the community. She completed medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana where she also earned my Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (malaria, travel medicine, medicine in low-resource settings). She has practiced medicine in South Africa and Nepal and traveled to many, many more countries. When she’s not in the hospital you can find her enjoying the sun at the beach, hiking the nearest mountain, cooking delicious food or hoping on a plane to explore somewhere far away.

Lisa Gantz, MD

Born and raised in sunny Southern California, Lisa grew up in Santa Clarita, a city about one hour north of Los Angeles. She headed to the University of Southern California for college, where she became a diehard Trojan football fan and explored the LA’s epic food scene. Lisa stayed at USC for medical school, where she embraced her passion for global health and working with underserved populations through volunteer work at LA County Hospital, on medical missions to Tijuana Mexico with Healing Hearts Across Borders, and in rural Guatemala. Her time in Guatemala sparked a fascination in public health. Inspired to better understand social determinants of health, Lisa took time off from medical school between her third and fourth year at USC to pursue an international research project As a Dean’s Research Scholar, Lisa did research on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination among women in Panama City, Panama. She chose Med-Peds for the rigorous and broad training to allow her to combine her passions for women's health, reproductive health, and public health.

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2016-2019 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2015-2016 Medical School: Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, 2011-2015 Undergraduate: University of Southern California

Ethan Greenblatt, MD

Ethan was born and raised on crawfish and LSU football in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He spent his childhood outdoors fishing for speckled trout and setting crab traps. Ethan graduated with a degree in chemistry from LSU, where he pursued his interests in teaching, global health, and research. During his time as an undergraduate, Ethan taught organic chemistry for three years, co-founded a global health non-profit with missions in Zambia and Mozambique, and researched organic chemistry for two years. He spent every other waking moment cheering for the Tigers and playing sports! He then moved just a few miles down the road to New Orleans where, as a medical student at LSU, his interests shifted to healthcare for the underserved and clinical research. He volunteered at the student run homeless health clinics for two years and researched gender differences in disease severity in children with systemic lupus erythematosus. Ethan's passion for teaching, however, remained constant. As a medical student, he tutored anatomy and helped to host forums for first and second year students on clinical reasoning. Ethan's perfect day starts with a cup of medium roast coffee at a cafe on the beach, continues with many beach activities including but not limited to bocce ball/football/paddle ball/wave jumping, settles down with a delicious meal at a local gastropub, and ends with a late night video game session! Go Tigers and go Bruins!

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2017-2020 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2016-2017 Medical School: Louisiana State University, 2013-2016 Undergraduate: Louisiana State University

Amos Lichtman, MD

Amos grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, along with 3 siblings, dogs, cats, and a couple dozen chickens. He failed his first driver’s test, and overslept his second, which was probably in everybody’s best interest. He went to college at Brown University in the great city of Providence. He studied neuroscience, compromising his vegetarian ideals to perform research on mice, played cello and ultimate frisbee. He went to medical school at UMass (in Worcester ‘WUS-ster’), and took a year off to complete an MPH in Global Health at Harvard. During these years he became committed to working at the intersection of health and human rights, and pursued many projects towards this goal, including assisting in medical assessments of asylum seekers and collaborative public health education and research in a refugee camp on the Myanmar border. Amos loves cooking, hiking, playing basketball and frisbee, and exploring the amazing variety of neighborhoods in L.A..

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2017-2020 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2016-2017 Medical School: University of Massachusetts, 2013-2016 Undergraduate: Brown University

Casey Nagel, MD

Casey was born and raised in Central Florida in a small town near Orlando named Mount Dora. He traded in the Florida humidity for Boston winters when he attended Boston College to study Psychology and Neuroscience. He lingered in New England for a year after college to work as a Mental Health Counselor at a psychiatric hospital. There he learned the fundamentals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness Meditation therapy which he incorporates into all of his practice of medicine. Returning to Florida to thaw, Casey attended the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine where he not only received a solid medical education, he was able to work to develop a wellness curriculum to help medical students and residents combat burnout which he hopes to continue to expand upon in residency. He was ecstatic to find out that he would be a part of the first all male Med-Peds class at UCLA, and he knows that UCLA will provide him with outstanding training to pursue whatever kind of medical career he would like (although it'll most likely be primary care so he can treat everyone no matter the age)! In his free time, Casey enjoys running road races, playing tennis with several of his co-residents, going to the movies, rewarding himself with food (and there is no shortage of all kinds here in LA), and exploring his new home city, whether it's at the beach playing volleyball or hiking around the mountains! He also hopes to contribute to the Medical Jeopardy team while at UCLA.

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2017-2020 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2016-2017 Medical School: University of South Florida, 2013-2016 Undergraduate: Boston College

Holly Dieu, MD

Born and raised in Charlotte, Holly spent her entire life in the Tar Heel State before moving to California. As an undergrad, she examined disparities in intrapartum care for non-English speaking patients and traveled to Honduras to provide medical aid. In medical school, she returned to Central America (specifically Nicaragua) to care for patients with congenital and rheumatic heart disease. Although her career interests are varied, she hopes to incorporate global and public health into her future career. When not roaming the hospital floors, you can find her basking in the sun with her two dogs, indulging in a bowl of ramen somewhere in Sawtelle, or exploring local coffee shops with her partner in search of the perfect dirty chai latte.

Education

Residency: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2018-2021 Internship: UCLA Combined Program in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, 2017-2018 Medical School: Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, 2014-2017Undergraduate: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Jiwen Li, MD

Jiwen immigrated from China to pursue her own version of the American dream, learning English through watching quality TV programming including Painting with Bob Ross, WWF (she is a longtime fan of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson), and Xena: Warrior Princess. She traded the corn-hedged fields of the Midwest for ten gallon hats, where she completed undergrad and medical school at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, respectively, in Houston, Texas. At Baylor she continued nurturing her passion for student education and advocacy, serving as teaching assistant and academic tutor for various courses. She also had the privilege of serving as president of her graduating class. She is excited to be a part of the only med-peds class in the country comprised of ≥50% South Dakota-educated physicians. In her free time, you can catch Jiwen catching up on entertainment gossip with NPR shows whose target demographic is twice her age playing in the background.